The World Dream Bank: Mafia Dentist

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Mafia Dentist

Dreamed 2007/7/10 by Wayan

I'm due to see a dentist in Santa Cruz at four;
I'm searching for his office, door to door

when a black limo glides to halt.
The dental nurse steps out!
The dentist lurks in the back of the car,
a Haitian monstrous fat.

He croaks "get in" in an ugly way.
My gut says run, yet I obey.

A dental chair is bolted to that iron limo floor.
The nurse straps me in, and ties my wrists.
Every hair stands up in horror.
I don't think they're masochists.

He pierces my throat with a wire tie,
careful to miss my jugular vein,
threading behind my larynx,
and out my neck again.

I feel like a calf with a nose-ring
as maniacs hold the rope.
If I don't heed, he'll pull the loop,
and never again will I sing.

Maybe! The flimsy tie
might break before I--
but dare I risk a fight?
What with? I can only bite.

He mumbles "We won't maim or
cripple ya too bad,
but see, I gotta aim a
message to your dad."

He and my father are mafia leaders
jostling each other.
Just as my dad teaches readers,
dentistry's his cover.

All my relatives are crooks.
    It's them my dentist's punishing,
       for he assumes I'm in their biz.
He rips my fragile flesh with hooks,
    but the dream is kind, fast-forwarding,
       for pain is not its point. What is?

At five they dump me back on the street.
But I grab the dentist's throat and growl
"I broke with my dad, we never speak!
You sent no message, you fool!

But here's one for YOU: touch me again
and you're dead. I won't avoid wars
between my rotten family and yours!
I don't care if we all die, when

you drag me back in your hells.
I left your world; I'm staying out.
You criminals have rules. I don't!
Leave me out of your games... or else."

NOTES

trapped, body violated, but defiant: last week I dreamed of a trapped woman who takes herself apart to escape!
Santa Cruz = invited today to my sister's house there, for a party
4 PM appointment = tomorrow I see a therapist (not dentist) at 3 PM (not 4).
black guy, crime families = two black kids burgled our neighbors in broad daylight. I called the cops who found items from other houses too--a lot of them. They were pros. At the pretrial hearing, the thieves' whole family showed up dressed like gansta wannabes. They glared at me, not their screw-up sons. Family values? I've seen family values, and they weren't pretty. But then, as the dream points out, neither were my family's.
obese Haitian = I just read Women in the Material World; one chapter's on Haiti. People are destitute now. So an obese Haitian is corrupt almost by definition--must be feeding off others.
Throat, voice = my voice went husky today, something felt stuck in my throat. Took it for allergies. Maybe it wasn't.
Twist-tie = I threw one out while cooking in a hurry, felt stab of eco-guilt. Must recycle every bit of paper and wire, even if that burns the omelet!
Torture at 4 PM = I overworked on an art project, Abyssia, this afternoon
My dad's a criminal, encroaching on fat man's territory = ??? So they're rivals, my dad and this guy. But my dad's been dead for years. Has some behavior I learned from him, or from my whole family, angered my inner... dentist? Burglar? Baby Doc?
never speak with my dad, estranged from my family = well, my dad's dead, so we don't talk too much, that's true. But I haven't broken with my family, though I do feel more distant these days. They're not criminals; the grotesque family of those burglars sure made an impression.
ACTION =
1. Slack off on art projects! Overdoing it.
2. Stay out of Santa Cruz.
3. Be alert today at 4 PM--you'll be biking home, possibly in heavy traffic!
4. Uh... avoid Haitians? And Mafia dons, and dentists. And fat guys. They're baaaaaaad.

NOTE THE NEXT DAY

I did not get run over, or dentisted, or mafiad, or anything. I'm still puzzling over the meaning of this dream. This dream that said it was a message. Only not to me--to my dad. Who's dead. And, while he lived, didn't believe in dreams.

NOTE A MONTH LATER

I've been trying therapy monthly--all I can afford. So I went today again, and talked over the Mafia Dentist dream. No conclusions, when the session ended at ten to four. So I got on my bike, and...

At the stroke of four I was trapped by
the light at Gough and Fell,
when a middle-aged black guy
walked out of flashback hell!
Obese he was, as near-obscene
as Mafia Dentist in my dream:
crisp black slacks and dressy shoes,
under that wobbling belly-ooze.
I dared not ask if he worked on teeth--
leave the nightmare in its grave!
Lift Life's skirt to peer beneath?
I'm brave. But not that brave.

LISTS AND LINKS: oops! - violence - pain in dreams - teeth and dentistry - family values - crime and criminals - threats and bullying - self-defense - dream-fathers - Dreams of my real dad - dream humor - shamanic dreams - dream poems - ESP in dreams - predictive dreams - A follow-up dream (in doggerel too): Blind Ancestors - a second doctor-nightmare-poem: Doctor Ventril

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